Chinese Take Out

Another soup driven on by lack of want to make a dinner. Ordered up some Chinese food tonight - grabbed a soup I Hadn't had before instead one of the usuals - Hot n Sour, Won-ton, or Egg Drop.

This is Shredded Pork and Pickled Szechuan Cabbage Soup.

Very Spicy - Naturally, but still a good flavor to it. Pretty typical Chinese soup chicken broth underneath the heat.. I was kind of expecting a carrot or some other vegetables besides just the cabbage from prior pickled cabbage experience.. but the lack there of really didn't spoil the soup. The pork was a bit suspect, but then again that's no real surprise.

here's a terribly easy pickled cabbage recipe.

Even better! I've found a recipe!

From there it's just making chicken broth with some soy sauce and shredded pork.

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Medieval Times

Went to Medieval Times the other day as part of a friends birthday celebration.. part of the meal (and I will say they give you a decent meal) Was a Tomato Bisque. . I know what you're thinking, "Bisque has seafood!" Well.. I didn't name the soup.. I just enjoyed it.

Here's what I imagine to be the most accurate recipe for Tomato Bisque --

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons tomato paste
4 cups chicken broth
2 (14.5 ounce) cans fire roasted diced tomatoes, drained
3 tablespoons white sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt and black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion, celery, carrot, and garlic. Cook and stir until the vegetables are tender and beginning to brown, about 8 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook 1 minute longer, stirring constantly.

Stir in the tomato paste, chicken broth, tomatoes, sugar, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 15 minutes until the vegetables are very tender.

Pour half to three-quarters of the soup into a blender-depending on how chunky you want it-filling the pitcher no more than halfway full.

Hold down the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel, and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the soup in the saucepan.

Return the pureed soup to the saucepan and stir in the cream. Cook over medium heat until the soup is hot. Season with salt and pepper to taste before serving.

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Box Fronion

I recently ran out of dinner ideas and decided to use a packet of French Onion Soup mix to actually make the soup, instead of some sort of dip/slow cooker sauce..

I boiled down a little cream sherry,
added water, brought it back to a boil,
added the packet -

Decent enough flavor..Made myself a nice toast crouton and melted on a bit of swiss..

aaaaand..

Tada!.. Not the prettiest thing in the whole world, obviously, but definitely not the worst tasting.

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Pot Roast

Pot Roast is the bastard cousin of Beef Stew. If I had chosen to put everything in the crock pot and not just the meat and gravy, that's what I would have had..

London broil

onion soup mix (another soup tie in!)
flour/water

campbell's cream of mushroom (another another tie in!)

ketchup

shake of liquid smoke.

left all day... ~8+ hours..

w/ cream corn, egg noodles, and candied carrots.

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Progresso's turn

Campbell's and Progresso will be eating away at my money for the rest of my life, courtesy of my love of soup (not to mention the Jersey love for Campbell's).

I just partook in a bowl (or large cup/mug, rather) of Traditional Chicken Noodle from Progresso.

As to be expected from canned soup, it was just as good as I remember it being the last time I had it, and I assume the next time.

I enjoy that everything in the soup is BIG. I don't just mean flavor, of course, I mean noodles, chicken, carrot, and celery pieces.

and for anyone interested:
The label.

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Oh Panera.. how I love thee..

Panera's Broccoli Cheddar

Probably one of my favorite soups of all time. I'm also terribly partial to their french onion. I have yet to determine if my love springs from the wonderful flavor of the soup, the accompanying bread, or both.

It's a wonderfully creamy soup with great flavor.
Obvious ingredients:
broccoli
cheddar cheese
carrot
Beyond that I would imagine:
butter
garlic
onion
salt & white pepper
chicken broth
flour
milk/light cream

Here is someone's best guess at the real recipe.

I would expect there will be a couple more Panera posts on here..
I'd also like to point out how happy I am with the direction Panera has gone with in terms of their place settings.. I genuinely enjoy the actual plates, etc. over their previous basket w/ kidney plates.

Not wikipedia.. but some history..

Trying my hand at something new

I know I've made promises to make certain things first. But since I'm the real audience of this blog.. I don't think anyone( I ) will mind if it come back to them and do something else first while I wait here in Moving Limbo.

And with that - Pumpkin Soup.
I made this to have to eat on Halloween before I went out. It wasn't bad. Not the greatest thing I've ever had.. but I've certainly tried worse..

Ingredients:
1.5 cups pumpkin purée
3 cups chicken broth

3/4 cup milk or light cream

for some reason my formatting is being ridiculous here.. and i'm done trying to fix it.

1 tablespoon flour

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon minced chives (which i didn't have.. so i just gave it a dash of onion powder)

Everything in the pot:

Aaaand the "Finished" product:

Overall I suppose it was alright.. The snippet in the book about how it tastes better after you let the flavors sit and blend was definitely true.. I enjoyed it significantly more a few hours after it finished than right after it was done.

Though never one to be satisfied.. the next day i tossed in some cinnamon and brown sugar at no real measurement.. and that really bumped the flavor that much more.

I also made some Cinnamon/Orange zest meringues..

dropped one in the bowl of soup for some more flavor/a mock crouton.. Rather enjoyable!

I also took the opportunity to make a loaf of Pumpkin bread with raisins that came out rather perfect.
Needless to say I've had my fill of pumpkin till at least next Halloween..

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Grandma's Split Pea

So I've stopped by my grandmothers - date this about.. ohh.. October 24th.
She has churned out another wonderful batch of her split pea soup.

I'm not 100% on her proportions but I DO know the ingredients.

Bag of peas - just the rinse kind. not the soaking kind.
Chicken broth
Beef broth
Ham bone & any pieces of ham left
Onion
Potato
S&P to taste.

I like a little crushed black pepper in mine - as you might be able to pick out..

I can't wait to finally move into the new place and be able to take some pics with the camera instead of my phone..

The soup has a long, low cook time..lots of stirring - and to my surprise no blending..

As to her report.. a lot of people sieve their pea soup and she doesn't.

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Even Wendy's makes the cut!

Chili - obviously.
They could very well have one of the best fast food (Including delis, diners, etc.) chilis.

A nice rich sauce, grund beef, celery and onions, tomato, kidney and pinto beans. - and once again I was helpless to resist the crackers they gave me.

here's a home "clone" recipe

I will consider going back some time and getting a better picture of this..because this one is pretty terrible.

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